The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-07-13
LIFE ON THE RAIL.
Duties and Annoyances Of the Men
Who Run Trains.
Engineers With a Passion for Running
into Cattle-Firemen and Their Duties
STORY of u Conductor Who Under
stood His Businsss-Porters, Etc.


nut-boy there is noted a new deal in
train-hands, says the San Francisco
Chronicle. Such men as are now en-
ployed did not run on trains twenty
years ago. Nor did they drive stage
coaches or shoot Indians. There was
happy-go-lucky streak in the charac-
ter of the old-time railroader. One
finds it only now and then in the
ticket-pun cher or baggage-handler of
to-day. There was sort of sailor-like
romance about the lives of people who
''ran on the line" then that one will
almost seek in vain for now. Your old
time railroader was an important in
dividual, made so by the fact that
there were few railroads in existence
when he stepped upon the stage, or
rather upon the car. So much depend
ed upon individual action and respon-
sibility then. Yet, in spite of
all his cares the train
hand was jolly. He had his
half-hours of joy at the long stops at
way stations, flirting with pretty
country lassies, or quafing ginger ale
or something stronger at the refresh
ment counter. The runs were short,
the time was slow, and the stops were
long. The only excitement was in
running down cattle that happened to
stray upon the track.
But the automatic brake, the patent
coupler, and double track have
wrought great change. The rail-
roader of the day is more of ma
chine-more part of the train itself
than anything else. Instead of short
runs and long stops there are long
runs and short stops. The speed has
almost doubled, and clock-work preci-
sion in manipulating the thousands Of
trains on the net work of tracks has
become necessity.
1t is this multiplication of railroads
ana trains that has dragged the train
hand down from his pinnacle of dig
nified isolation. He has become a
very common unit, not to say a vulgar
fraction. AS matter of fact, he is
just as important, especially in his
own estimation, as he was twenty
years ago, but with the loss
of the happy-go-lucky air and
his RELOCATION to machine duty,
the romance of his position sinks
out of sight Still, he is not altogether
a hopeless case, as he is likely to be
lifted from the hum-drum of train life
into the hum-drum of life in general
railway office; perhaps as sixteenth
assistant general freight agent, or per-
haps-who knows-as general mana
ger or president. And then the oppor-
tunity for knocking down" or div
vying" with some one who knocks
down is as good as ever.
A railroad conductor said the other
day: Some railroaders call theirs a
dogs life; others say it is worse, but I
notice that they nearly all stick to it
until they get too old for any thing
else-even for keeping bar. l think that
speaks volumes for this business. If it
was no good they would not hang on
to it the way they do, unless it is that
this tenacity is given them to make the
punishment fit the crime"
The life is evidently not a sweet
dreamland fancy OF any thing of the
sort, but there are plenty of people who
are living it and growing gray-headed
In it, and many of them are better off
than they would be if they were to cease
their everyday whirl and rush and set
tie down to quieter things.
Take the engineer, for instance. He
is not the nerve-shattered BRAIN
wrought, and fear-excited man whom
fancy paints as standing at the throttle
with straining eye and careworn face,
one hand clutching the cold steel, while
in the other he carries hundreds of in
nocent lives.
Truth to say. he may be nervous, and
lew there are in his position whose
nerves are not affected, but he is not
always standing with his heart in his
mouth while his engine flies along the
track. He early learns to accept the
situation as one of great responsibility,
but if there is any ease or enjoyment
to be extracted from it he knows that
no one. from the president down to
paste auditor, is going to blame him
Tor taking it. He soon works his way
into enamel where an easy-going
but at the same time dutiful perform